BREAKING: Suspected Fulani Gunmen Attack Travellers on Ilesha – Ife Highway, OAU Lecturer Abducted, Scores Injured

A trailer-load of gunmen suspected to be Fulanis attacked travellers on the Ife-Ilesha highway yesterday evening, abducting a lecturer of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife and injuring many others.

It was learnt that the trailer conveying the attackers suddenly stopped in the middle of the highway at Ikoyi town in Osun State about 6.45pm, while the gunmen disembarked and started shooting at everyone in sight.

The OAU lecturer, simply identified as Prof Adegbehingbe, was said to be travelling with his wife and two others.
Several vehicles that were moving along the route when the incident happened, it was further learned, had to stop because the men wielding sophisticated weapons, partially blocked the road.

Director of Media, Ooni of Ife Palace, Moses Olafare, said he received a call from an anonymous caller when it was discovered the kidnap victim works in Obafemi Awolowo University.

Olafare said he also spoke to the wife of Prof Adegbehingbe while she was in a police station in Apomu to report the matter.

Also, the Public Relations Officer of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Adegbenro Adebanjo, whose wife and son were caught up in the attack, gave an account of the incident in a Facebook post.

Read his account which he entitled, Insecurity: We are all in Trouble, below.

“The call came in around 7:30 PM on Sunday, May 5,2019 …Daddy, daddy, marauders suspected to be Fulani herdsmen attacked the vehicle my mummy and my brother were traveling in.

“Where, how? The caller, who is my first son, explained that according to information gleaned from his brother, who managed to escape with his phone the marauders targeted the travellers on the highway.

“From what I was able to piece together it was a clinical operation by professionals.

“At about 6:45pm on the Ilesha-Ife-Ibadan Expressway a trailer loaded with some men suddenly blocked the road around Ikoyi town and some men jumped out and started shooting sporadically. Mayhem ensued as vehicles rammed into one another while occupants exited through windows and other openings in desperate dash for safety in the bush.

“The marauders who spoke in Hausa unleashed mayhem on the hapless travellers demanding for money and other valuables. They pursued those who fled deep into the bush beating and harassing them in the process while shooting continuously to show that they meant business.

“Some twenty minutes after help came through the Police who engaged the marauders in a shootout and succeeded in forcing them to beat a hasty retreat.

“Mercifully most of the travellers including my wife and son who were bruised and battered both physically and psychologically live to tell the tale of the harrowing experience.”